Evaluation of EU Support to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Partner Countries : Final Report ; Volume 1: Main Report

This final report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Evaluation of European Union (EU) Support to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in Partner Countries, commissioned by the Evaluation Unit of the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO). The objectives of the evaluation are: (a) to provide the relevant external cooperation services of the EU, Member States, the EU Parliament and the wider public with an overall independent assessment of the EU’s past and current support to GEWE in partner countries; and (b) to identify key lessons, assess results thus far, and to produce strategic, operational and forward-looking recommendations in order to improve current and future EU and Member State strategies, programmes and actions. The evaluation focuses on gender mainstreaming in EU development cooperation, as called for in the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment 2010–15 (GAP). In particular the evaluation focuses on how gender mainstreaming has been implemented by the European Commission Services (EC Services), the European External Action Services (EEAS) and two Member States (MS), the Netherlands and Spain. The evaluation assesses also the extent to which EU/EC cooperation (policy, strategies, programmes/projects) has been relevant, efficient and effective in supporting sustainable impacts on GEWE in partner countries in the period 2007–13.